The Car Dashboard Is Not The Place To Let 1,000 Apps Bloom

Despite the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated connected car platforms, those systems remain largely closed to developers due to safe driving concerns. While those platforms will eventually open up, automakers have to be wary of placing too many limitations on development today. Otherwise consumers will ignore them.

There is growing number of sophisticated connected car development platforms emerging in the auto industry, but so far automakers have been a reluctant to actually let developers at them. The reason is the overriding concern of safety. Unlike on a smartphone, an overly complicated or flashy app on the dashboard isn’t just merely a distraction; it could be the cause of a fatal accident.

Infotainment platform makers and the developers they work with are wrestling with that paradox, said David Kirsch, connected technology engineer for Honda R&D Americas at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference on Thursday. In one sense, the real estate on the dash and the power of on-board hardware gives them an opportunity to make sophisticated and immersive apps, but those are the exact types of apps that distract drivers from what should be their primary tasks: staying in their lanes and avoiding other cars and obstacles.

A panel of speakers, including Glympse CEO Byran Trussel and Aha by Harman VP and GM Robert Acker, all agreed that concern for safety was the main reason why connected cars would remain largely closed as development platforms in the near term.